One of the most popular Bulgarian folk singers Lyubka Rondova has passed away. Her life has been for decades committed to promoting folk songs from her native region. She was born in the village of Shestevo, near Kostur, today part of Greece. She would define herself as “the Daughter of Aegean” and this was the title of one of her albums. During the 1948 civil war in Greece her family was split. Lyubka was one among many refugee children taken away from Greece. She graduated in Slavonic Studies from Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic. Since 1960 she lived in Bulgaria – the cherished motherland in which her family gradually reunited as its members came back from various parts of the world.

Lyubka Rondova started work as soloist and philologist at the first folklore ensemble in this country – Gotse Delchev. Even in recent years when her health was unstable she continued gathering unknown and unrecorded folk songs. Bulgaria owes to her folk song samples from the volumes of the Brothers Miladinov and Kuzman Shapkarev. Rondova composed her own melodies released in albums. She was awarded with this country’s top distinctions – Stara Planina and Cyril and Methodius orders.

In the spring of 2015, Lyubka Rondova received the Lifetime Achievement Award for contributing to the Bulgarian folklore heritage from the online chart Annual Folklore Awards. She was very honored by this award. Lyubka Rondova loved Radio Bulgaria and its diverse friends some of whom are her admirers. We have presented the great folk singer in dozens of interviews and music programs.

RIP!